Presser points | Spurs vs AZ Alkmaar | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Thursday evening’s return leg against AZ Alkmaar in the UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 (kick-off 8pm UK).

With the team trailing 1-0 from the first leg in the Netherlands last week, here’s what Ange had to say...

Ange on team news

“Kevin (Danso) got a hamstring injury in the last game so he is out. Ben (Davies) is back in, so that’s the only change from the weekend. Everyone else got through the (AFC Bournemouth) game with no problems. Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero got through the game well. Obviously Romero had no issues and it was great to get Micky back out there and he felt good, so both are available.”

Ange on whether Thursday’s game is crucial to our season

“There aren’t many professions in the world where you have to come in and answer questions like that, are there? No, there aren’t, but I am going to be polite and say we’re focused on winning the game tomorrow night and need to put in a better performance than we did last Thursday. Obviously that wasn’t anywhere near the standard we want to play. We did some good things at the weekend, did some not so good things, but we feel like if we can play with the intensity and tempo we played at the weekend, we’ll give ourselves a good chance to progress."

Ange on whether there’s any extra pressure with this being our last chance to win a trophy this season

“No, no extra pressure. I guess as I said before, I think we were obviously disappointed with our performance in the first leg and I guess the important thing is we didn’t make the tie impossible for us to get back into. It’s still very tight. Obviously they have the goal advantage, but being at home and if we can play with the intensity and tempo we played at the weekend, I think we’ll have the opportunity to progress. Should we progress then we’ll obviously have another big challenge in the next round but right now the key focus is to put in a really strong performance at home tomorrow night and we’ll go from there.”

Ange on the importance of senior players taking responsibility against AZ

“Yeah I think so, but we haven’t had them a lot. I would include Vicario in that as well. I think Vic was enormous for us in the first leg and he was big for us at the weekend as well. You want your big, experienced players to perform in these games, for sure. We have relied a lot on our younger players who have progressed really well, but I guess a night like tomorrow night, having the likes of Romero, Maddison, Vicario and Sonny out there, they are our four leaders and I don’t think we’ve had them on the park at all together this year or very little anyway. Having all four of them, the whole leadership group out there, will definitely be beneficial.”

Ange on the severity of Kevin Danso’s injury

“Hard to say at the moment. He felt it right at the end of the game so we’ll see. We have got the international break which helps us. Kevin looks after himself, he is a pretty good athlete so we’ll give him every chance to get back. We have to let it settle down before we get clarity around that but he will be pushing for sure.”

Ange on the latest on Richarlison’s recovery

“Probably post the international break he should be there or thereabouts depending on his progress. It was good to see him back out on the grass. He is working hard to get back in and hopefully post-international break he will be available.”

Ange on what went wrong last week against AZ

“I think there was some clear evidence there that we didn’t really play at the intensity that we usually do. It could be a multitude of things but we have analysed that and reviewed that. At the weekend we had our struggles but at the same time I thought we were more like ourselves, particularly in the second half, in terms of playing with a real strong intent with and without the ball. So the level is there, it’s not like it’s disappeared. We have just got to make sure we get to that level again tomorrow night.”

Ange on atmosphere in the stadium

“(The fans) have a big role. We saw that at AZ, they obviously helped their team on the night and we need our supporters to get behind the team and create a really good atmosphere, like we did when we played Liverpool and Man City. I think our fans know it's a big game and I'm sure they'll come there tomorrow night to try and support the lads and get us over the line.”

Ange on our approach with a 1-0 aggregate deficit

“I think you just treat it as any other game. I think if you frame the scoreline into it, ultimately it's a game we have to win. If we win it means we’re in a positive goal difference. Whether that's enough to get through, but it's a game we have to win, we know that. The beauty of our approach I guess is nothing really changes because we try and go out there and win every game and be really dominant in our football and that's what we're going to need to do tomorrow night to get the result we want. So from our perspective, being a goal down doesn't really change anything. We'll just go out there with a normal mindset that we showed in the games we've done well in this year and use that as a way forward.”

Ange on Troy Parrott

“Troy’s done really well, he did really well in Holland last year. It was a really good loan move for him. I think sometimes for players like Troy, getting away from the UK and seeing whether they can do it in a different style of football, whether it suits them, and I think the Dutch league certainly has allowed him to develop further. He's doing really well, I’m really pleased for him and hopefully we can keep him quiet tomorrow night. Obviously he's still a very good goalscorer. His goals, you know, as a striker, he's a good finisher, but apart from that, I think he's a good link-up player. He works hard for his team as well, and we saw that the other night, both with and without the ball. He's a hard worker and I think it's good to see him develop in those areas.”